Steven Regal vs. Ultimo Dragon (Slamboree 1997)
- Regal no longer wants to go by “Lord” and Dusty proceeds to call him Lord Regal. Weird dynamic since both guys are heels but if Sonny Ono wasn’t at ringside, you know the fans would cheer Dragon easily. I love watching Regal on the mat. He was doing a test of strength spot and casually pushes down on Dragon’s calf to get the advantage. When Dragon was in a pinning position, Regal puts his knee in Dragon’s face to try and get the pin. Beautiful. Dragon controls with a headlock and they keep it moving including Regal locking his hands together in order to put Dragon in a pinning position. Usually guys just grab the tights or roll over. When Dragon goes on offense, it was pretty nasty and Regal eats it better than anyone. Regal continues to go for the Regal Stretch and the announcers do a good job of playing it up. Another example of Regal doing the little things right…. He elbows Dragon in the knee!!! Hot finish with a nice Regal chant going, some nice nearfalls from Dragon, Regal going back for the Regal Stretch and even some fighting outside. Dragon hits the Asai moonsault and it feels like a huge victory for Dragon to finally hit that move. Interference from Ono backfires and he hits Dragon in the back of the head. As Dragon faces Ono, Regal kicks him in the head, throws him in the ring, hits a reverse suplex and finally locks in the Regal Stretch. Really great stuff here. Not the best Regal match out there but I am glad I watched it.